ALL Night T-Hunt

4/26/08

Laziness

Arrogance

Stupidity

Tiredness

Note the acronym and you get the idea. There was one clear reason for my poor performance and one person that carries all of the blame. ME.

I needed ink. My 4 ink slinging printers had been running on dry for months and the only ink I would buy is from the super discounters and their show only pricing. They stopped coming to my local swap meets so I decided that to relieve the strain of my squeezing more on my old carts that I would go to the TRW swap meet. This corresponds exactly with our all-day type Thunts so I haven’t been to TRW in some 10-15 years but these are desperate times. I got up at 5AM and drove for a few hours and walked for a few miles and bought my ink, rushed off to King’s for my English muffin and coffee.

As is my custom (you will hear a lot about my custom’s here) I turned on my Thunt transmitter in the 4Runner when I arrived at King’s both in the hope of attracting more hunters to dine with me and to kinda reserve the frequency for the hunt. After a nice munch, I proceeded to drive to the start and turned the 857 to two meters for the first time and low-and-behold, there was another Thunt transmitter on 146.565 MHz. I turned mine off. I hadn’t listened before activating my transmitter nor had I monitored that it was running correctly. Custom…My first display of arrogance for today with many more to come.

This transmitter was Iding with call signs of well known hunters but not the ones hiding today. What is this, and it is on an hour early. I am the first at the start and I am messing around with the computer and a few other things that need messing and Wayne and Pete (who I had seen at TRW) wander up. They say that the Thunt transmitter had come on last night and had been on all night. More pondering. Deryl arrives and he says that he took a bearing on it from his house and from the start point and they cross in downtown LA. More pondering and the crap starts to fly and I start to believe it.

We hadn’t heard from Scott all month and we know he was trying at one point to get out this hide for scheduling reasons. Scott isn’t hiding but Bob and Steve, those iding on the transmitter are hiding. Scott’s office is in downtown LA. The start bearing points at the intersection of Hwy 2 and Hwy 39. There is a second Thunt transmitter iding T2 that is weaker and has a different bearing by about 15 degrees.  (I haven’t measured any of these but others have and we are all standing around talking.) Scott calls on the phone. It is still 15 minutes to the start. Doug and friend arrive.

Scott said that there will be more transmitters and he will call back after the start. Sure enough after the start time we hear 3 and Deryl claims to hear 4. Scott says there are 5 with one being a voice transmitter that doesn’t count in the hunt with directions. He also stated that it was a “one tank” hunt. We pondered a lot more and here is the scenario I am led to (mostly by my own babbling).

As is well known, Hw2 is blocked just after where Hwy 39 would intersect. Neither Hwy goes through but only by a few hundred yards. Hwy 2 is blocked for around 10 miles from the Wrightwood side but is open to Blue Ridge plus around 5 miles. As was pointed by Wayne, there is a dirt road connecting the west side of Hwy 2 to Hwy 39, but this 20 mile dirt is gated. Wayne points out that you can get a pass for the gate combination from forestry. Beginning to get the picture?

I fell for it. Scott has hidden with one transmitter on Hwy2 and the voice transmitter giving directions how to open the gate on this bypass road and the other transmitter are hidden along this road and maybe on Hwy 39 as well. Hook line, sinker and the pole.

I didn’t take a bearing, I didn’t plot a bearing, I didn’t get out my maps I didn’t even give much thought I just zeroed my odometer and drove off for Hw2. Note how well we have gotten through the L, A, and S of my acronym.

I figured that I would be going by downtown LA and could check that out on my way. Every time I checked the main transmitter direction visually it pointed at the snow covered San Antonio peak, right in line with the ethereal vision created at the start. I got to the onset of Hwy 2 and the signal had gone away but was soon replaced with a new Transmitter T5. It was SE and not in the mountains at all. Scott called on the phone and was in awe at my being where I was. I ignored his amazement.

I decided to pursue this T5. I was beginning to feel I had made a mistake or more on this hunt and screw it, this was pointing on the way home. I kept going and going and going and just south of Lake Mathews some 75 miles from where I first hear it, I found T5. Along the way I had a very nice lunch in San Dimas. The high point of my otherwise dismal day. While I was puttering down to Riverside County I noticed that T5 lost if tones and just had 5 seconds of carrier and some CW Id. None of the other transmitters I had heard to this point had tones.

Now it is 4:PM and I am energized with my find and I decide to go after the main transmitter in the Angeles Forest. I go up to Blue Ridge on the east side of Hwy 2 but I hear nothing but an occasional bleep from T5. This is strange since I have a very clear view of San Antonio and if the signal were bouncing off of it from some canyon or other I surely would hear it. All “bearings” to date had pointed at San Antonio. I still hadn’t plotted anything. I helped a hiker to change his flat tire (it was on his car, silly).

I decided it must be in the canyon above Mt. Baldy village and drove up there. Again hear nothing, but you never get a view of San Antonio from that road. Must be further west. A nice young couple had just bought a very used car and it had a broken disk pad holder. We jacked and pulled the wheel and did an emergency repair using a wire from a key ring.

I took the Glendora Ridge road west from Baldy village and heard another transmitter with tones. I could hear T5 and it’s tones never came back. It is possible that this new transmitter was T1, but I don’t know. Along the ridge road, I eventually found both T2 and the main Transmitter. They seemed to be on the same hill with both being 50 dB attenuator and both on top of the hill. I took sniffer bearings on three sides of the hill and both seemed to be up there. This didn’t explain how both the main transmitter  and T2 could be 15 degrees apart at the start. Very strange, but…

It was now dark, I had some 325 miles logged and I was pooped. The hill was a rather long walk, the parking lot was full of partying kids (4 young adults enjoying the view) and I was reluctant to leave the 4Runner unattended. It was also covered in undergrowth and I was in shorts and really didn’t want to change. I was pooped. I didn’t climb the hill. But went home.

Great hunt. I really enjoy torturing myself. I hope to learn more about LAST.

Jippy